New hopes in the CV fight

[Tommy T.]

3 hours ago, earthdome said:

PS: I know I have been picking on your posts Tommy but you seem even tempered and normally very reasonable when discussing things.

Peace!

Thanks for that. Normally, I am mostly abuser friendly. Sometimes I have my moments and typically regret the occasional sharp comment that slips out...

As someone posted a while ago, the forum might be rather boring if everyone agreed in lockstep with everyone else's comments or opinions? And yes, often mine are incorrect or not entirely thought out - keyboard fingers faster than my brain?

3 hours ago, earthdome said:

I don't want to know how you got that infection.

Nope... no infection there or anywhere now, for that matter. I love sarcasm (L hates when I use it) so use it often but not so much with her...

[GeoffH]

There are strong indications that an anti-viral drug used to treat influenza that was developed in Japan is having a 'moderate' effect on SARS-Cov-2 in clinical trials.

It has been shown to reduce the time of infection in mild to moderate cases, it is being sent from Japan to 43 other countries for large scale trials.

It isn't a magic bullet but if it can reduce the severity of cases that's a good thing it could well reduce the number of hospital admissions and/or ITU admissions giving hospitals more capacity to cope.  It's still early days but it's looking very promising.

One potential issue will be production, this drug has never been distributed on the international market in any large scale and production would take time to ramp up.

 

https://www.clinicaltrialsarena.com/news/fujifilm-avigan-covid-19-trial-japan/

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/04/fujifilms-flu-drug-favipiravir-sent-to-43-nations-for-covid-19-trials.html

Edited May 14, 2020 by GeoffH

[Jollygoodfellow]

Moved posts about sarcasm into the topic created for it.  

[Mike J]

Small study suggest statins may help but has yet to be peer reviewed.

https://news.yahoo.com/statins-may-help-older-coronavirus-182241218.html

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The following is a brief roundup of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines for COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus.

Statins may help protect frail older people from severe COVID-19 symptoms

Widely-used cholesterol-lowering statin drugs may be associated with substantially fewer symptoms in older, frail COVID-19 patients, a small study suggests. Among 154 coronavirus patients at two nursing homes, those who took a statin, such as Lipitor, were nearly three times more likely to be free of symptoms during their infection than those who did not, researchers in Belgium found. There was also slight trend toward lower risks for lengthy hospital stays and death that was not statistically significant. The study was not randomized, so more formal trials are needed to definitively prove that statins affect outcomes. "In the current absence of other valuable therapies and considering the benefit-risk balance, an older person living in a nursing home could consider taking a statin if at high COVID-19 infection risk," the authors advised. The study, reported on Friday on the medRxiv website, has not yet been peer-reviewed.

[manofthecoldland]

28 minutes ago, Mike J said:

Statins may help protect frail older people from severe COVID-19 symptoms

Good thing I kept reading onward after I read this and paused.... thinking and wondering.

Early daybreak now and just starting to fuel up with kape No.1, trying to get my poor eyesight to sharpen.... You see. they first read 'statins' as 'stains' (deleting the t )

So my initial impulse was to wonder,  "I wonder what sort of stains they're talking about?"

                      Haha !    Souls, clothes or teeth ?

[GeoffH]

I would have thought that the vast majority of 'frail older folk' would already be on statins, they're pretty much ubiquitous in care homes here and widespread amongst the 60 plus demographic anyway.

Edited May 15, 2020 by GeoffH

[Tommy T.]

58 minutes ago, Mike J said:

The study was not randomized, so more formal trials are needed to definitively prove that statins affect outcomes. "In the current absence of other valuable therapies and considering the benefit-risk balance, an older person living in a nursing home could consider taking a statin if at high COVID-19 infection risk," the authors advised. The study, reported on Friday on the medRxiv website, has not yet been peer-reviewed.

Unfortunately, Mike, that is the issue with so many things about this contagion. Because it is so new, there are any number of treatments (maybe UV?) or chemicals (not Lysol or bleach), drugs or regimens (sorry...another big word for Geoff!) that MAY be effective treatments or even cures, but they all need to be tested scientifically to be sure they are safe and maybe most importantly, that they actually work. That is frustrating for me and the rest of us to read about.

Goodness... we could eat vitamin C, sit in the sunlight every day, gulp chloroquine, statins, antibiotics, anti-flu meds, HIV meds....? Let's all hope that some of these therapies will pan out - especially for us "senior" citizens. (And I said senior as in the Spanish senior with the ~ over the n, since I am here in Philippines)

[Mike J]

8 minutes ago, Tommy T. said:

Unfortunately, Mike, that is the issue with so many things about this contagion. Because it is so new, there are any number of treatments (maybe UV?) or chemicals (not Lysol or bleach), drugs or regimens (sorry...another big word for Geoff!) that MAY be effective treatments or even cures, but they all need to be tested scientifically to be sure they are safe and maybe most importantly, that they actually work. That is frustrating for me and the rest of us to read about.

Goodness... we could eat vitamin C, sit in the sunlight every day, gulp chloroquine, statins, antibiotics, anti-flu meds, HIV meds....? Let's all hope that some of these therapies will pan out - especially for us "senior" citizens. (And I said senior as in the Spanish senior with the ~ over the n, since I am here in Philippines)

You forgot to mention that you should be smoking while sitting in the sun, helps get the nicotine levels up.    Boy did that ever start a brush fire at WHO. 

[Tommy T.]

5 minutes ago, Mike J said:

You forgot to mention that you should be smoking while sitting in the sun, helps get the nicotine levels up.    Boy did that ever start a brush fire at WHO. 

I also forgot to mention to drink Tanduay while smoking and sitting in the sun. Gotta keep the blood/alcohol level up to kill that virus. But getting it up to 70% is a challenge!!

[Mike J]

I don't think this new personal protective gear is going to be very popular.